First Impression: Eh, it’s no Starcraft.

Second, and third impression: Wow, this game is really, really solid.

As you know, Halo Wars is a new real time strategy game within the Halo universe. Now, to begin, if you don’t play many RTS games you probably wont have as many issues with the game that I have; this is because when I play RTS games I compare them to, what I believe is still the best RTS game out there, Starcraft. An interesting thing happened however; Halo Wars really stood up and succeeded very well with all the issues it could have had being a console RTS game.

First let’s talk about the controls. Many people, myself included, feared the complex controls needed being consolidated into a non-complex controller. However, the shortcuts in the game are very, very good. The d-pad takes you between your bases, and between each group of units, which makes continuous play very easy; e.g., when you are attacking it is incredibly simple to get back to your base to continue building, and then quickly get back to your units that are attacking. The only problem with quick movements is that you are unable to skip around the maps quickly, which really isn’t that big of a deal. Another issue with the controls, which I assumed was impossible using only a controller, is the inability to micro. Micro is the ability to switch between either individual units or group of units, which you decide; it offers the greatest control over your units. One benefit of micro is that you can pull units back and bring units forward with ease when in battle, which can lower your loss count and help kill the enemy faster. I did attempt to micro in Halo Wars, but it was very difficult, very slow, and the units didn’t seem to respond or move as quickly as I would have liked them to. But, as you will find out, microing would be almost useless when playing, so its non-inception is honestly not a big deal.

When I first played the game, and I saw the unit count was limited to 30 for the UNSC (max 40) and 40 for the Covenant (max 50), I thought this would be a problem. However, and this goes back to the inability to micro—by limiting the amount of units attainable, the controls were made more basic and there is no need to micro, which evens the game out. Also the fact that each map limits the amount of added bases you can attain, and that each base limits how many buildings you can build, the limited units are not such a big problem. Ensemble also did a great job, and this took me a while to actually figure out, balancing the units, special abilities, upgrades, and building times between the two races. You may play and think I’m completely wrong, but I’ve done the research and convinced myself that everything is equally balanced out. For example, 2 Scarabs will kill the majority of UNSC bases because, as I learned, 2 Scarabs will destroy 8 Scorpions, 8 Warthogs, 8 Cyclops, and 8 upgraded turrets, but you can beat the big bugs with upgraded MAC blasts, and the initial Scarab, with all the upgrades and buildings you need, costs over 10,000 supplies.

The matchmaking and ranking system are much like Halo 3. You are ranked out of 50 based on TrueSkill and are teamed up and battle against equally ranked opponents. The campaign is also the same as the rest of the Halo series with Easy, Normal, Heroic and Legendary difficulties; and don’t be fooled, Legendary is still ridiculously hard; I think the computer is actually given an unfair advantage. There are different modes you can play; Campaign, Skirmish, or Multiplayer. Campaign brings you 20 years before Halo 1, but after the Covenant’s initial invasion. Skirmish allows you to test your skills against the computer, and multiplayer brings you online where you can match up against others in 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3. The campaign isn’t anything special and I actually became quite bored with playing it. However, the multiplayer is very fun and, with the large extent of maps, should not become boring. And like Halo 3, you are still unable to choose which maps you’d prefer to play on. If I could I would always like to play on specific maps, ones where I know where all the extra crates are, and maps that are easy to expand on, but I get no such luck. There also seems to be no way to determine what your opponent’s rank is. When you play 1v1 and you meet your opponent there is no rank next to their name like in Halo 3 matchmaking, which is annoying because I don’t know if I’m playing somebody very good, only decent, or not very good.

There is a semi-annoying feature in the multiplayer, and that is Rebels. When you begin the match you and your opponent each have a base, but usually one base isn’t enough to attain enough minerals and units to win. On each map there are designated spots where you can expand your base and build more buildings and units. However, this is where the Rebels come in. On the majority of the maps the spaces where you can expand are already taken by Rebels. This seems to be a safety feature to slow the expansion of the players playing the game; but this is incredibly annoying to a player whose main goal is to expand quickly in a RTS game, like myself. I find myself building a few quick units to destroy the Rebel base so I can expand. The Rebels aren’t very difficult to kill, 3 warthogs with a gunner usually will do the trick, but they are very annoying and sometimes cause myself to be slowed very dramatically—like when I fail to kill them the first time I attack.

The sound and graphics aren’t mind blowing, and they wont change your life; but the graphics are very good and very solid. Unfortunately when you boot up the game you don’t get that Halo themed music, and that’s very disappointing, but don’t let that get you down, the music is still eerie and ‘Haloesque.’ The graphics are fairly detailed and you are able to rotate and zoom in on the maps to fit your style of play. The little marines throw their little grenades and the MAC blasts are giant explosions that light up the screen. If you’re using a surround sound system, crank it up and you’ll feel right in the middle of a war. The graphics wouldn’t make me specifically go out and buy this game, but they aren’t bad at all, and wouldn’t make me not want to buy the game. I call the graphics and sound fair.

This game does not disappoint the Halo series. A few months ago when CoD: WaW was the hot topic and scolded the COD franchise by riding the wave and cheating the players. While I scolded CoD, some people said Halo was doing the same thing, to which I responded with Halo Wars. The only problem at that point was, nobody knew if Halo Wars would be any good, and CoD: WaW obviously was a very solid game. But, Halo Wars hit the mark dead on, and the Halo franchise has now grown to become, in my opinion, much better than the CoD franchise because we now see a respectable broad set of games, and further that the series is willing to adapt and to offer their fans more choice. To those who don’t or never have played RTS games, if you like Halo buy this game. To those who play RTS games and feel that no game can compare, go buy this game, you will be very surprised.

Overall: 9 out of 10

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